So, if you know anything about me at all, you know that my ability to pay attention to detail is pretty much nonexistent. It’s just now how I was made. I don’t like details and the “fine print” things of life. It’s not an excuse I’ve come up with to justify my poor listening skills or to rationalize my short comings in the details department. God revealed that He made me this way while I was in nursing school. In nursing, details are SIGNIFICANT. The difference between “0.1mg” and “1mg” matter. I was struggling to keep up with it all and felt like such a failure. I prayed a desperate prayer one day and said something like, “I’m not doing good with all of this. I can’t see the details even when I try to find them. If I’m going to catch all of this you’re going to have to help me.” He showed me that He made me not to be detail-minded, but to see the big picture. When He showed me that it changed my life. And now I’m so happy and content with how He’s made me. How he made me and how he made you is extraordinary! Every gift from Him is good and the way He’s designed you has purpose and meaning in His kingdom. What seems like a deficiency to the world is a device that the Lord will use to show you His love and power…and that is the greatest gift of all. I’m thankful that He helps me with details because I KNOW it is Him. And that makes me feel taken care of and so loved. I get lost in the details and have to work hard it, but just because I’m not made to see the details does not mean that God deems them unimportant or that he is uninterested in them. He’s been changing so much about me and teaching me so many new things this year. This is what He’s been teaching me this week…
HE CARES ABOUT EVERY DETAIL OF MY LIFE. Every single, little, tiny, itsy-bitsy detail. It’s important to Him if it’s important to me. Now this might seem like a simple idea, but what I’ve learned is that when the answer is simple Jesus is speaking. He does not speak to us in ways that are hard to understand, to demean and over power us. Instead, He whispers to us because He is near us…right next to us. He’s close to every aspect of our lives. He is in the details.
He reminded me of this earlier in the week as I was reading in John 19. He’s taught me, through people who’ve discipled me, that if something catches your eye as you read scripture to stop and pay attention to it. Figure out what He is saying to you specifically. Ask Him if there is anything He is revealing to you. So, as I was reading, this verse caught my eye. “Here they crucified him, and with him two others-one on each side and Jesus in the middle.” (John 19:18) The word “middle” stood out to me, so I looked it up. It means to be “in the midst” or “amongst”. And this detail is IMPORTANT because it is the whole reason Jesus came for us, died for us, and rose again….so that He can be in our midst and amongst us. WOW! ….mind=blown. One word, “middle”, changed the story. And as I marveled in that vastness of that “small” detail this is what I wrote in my journal ….
“Father you know how you made me and I love how I am made. I like the way I think and the way you speak to me. I like that you teach me and help me pay attention to detail because it is important to you. What I hear in my heart now is ‘every detail of your life is important to me. Just as the words in my story.‘ To know that you put that much thought and intention into every word of scripture for my benefit, that I may know you more just makes me feel so loved.”
So, there is great treasure left in the details for us to discover. These gems point us to His love and reveal the great care He lavishes on us. So, there is no prayer too small, no detail too minuscule, and no dream that is too negligible for Father. Cast ALL (each, every, any, all things, everything) your anxiety on him because he cares for you. ( 1 Peter 5:7)
Delighting in the details,
Chelsea
